Mad about Mushrooms . . .

Redfish - Port Orford, OR

"A gastronomic dust bowl" was the way one writer friend described the Oregon coast's restaurant scene some years ago.  This may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but his point wasn't without justification; if your dining aspirations exceeded fried seafood or a barely acceptable steak, there were very few places to go that didn't disappoint.

That's no longer true.  As the sophistication of today's traveling public has increased dramatically, coastal dinner houses kept pace.  But the southern coast, being more remote and distant from the larger population centers, often lags behind the more well traveled areas further north.

Redfish opened a couple of years ago with considerable fanfare.  We dined there on more than one occasion, and found that the execution didn't quite live up to the menu.  They had interesting sounding entrees (maybe a little too interesting, as if they were trying so hard that it came off as pretentious), but the execution on the plate did not always measure up.  It wasn't bad... we just didn't feel it was as good as it should have been, given the menu (and the price!)

We're happy to report that has all changed.  Executive Chef Jeremy Kelly was brought in all the way from Louisville, Kentucky to turn things around, and he has done so; Redfish now holds its own with any good dinner house anywhere, not just on the Oregon Coast.

 

Redfish: fabulous view and excellent cuisine! 

McKeown's Restaurant - Seaside, OR

OK, I confess.  We've joined the many folks who "Groupon."  McKeown's Restaurant is one good example of the reasons why we enjoy Groupon, and will no doubt keep on "Grouponing!"

For the un-initiated, Groupon is an internet service that e-mails participants a coupon available for purchase each day for your area (or other areas you can sign up for).  If you buy that day's Groupon, it entitles you to a great deal on something - a visit to a restaurant, a stay at a motel or a resort, service for your car, etc.  The deals are usually about 50% off the regular price, and must be used within a specified period of time.   Why merchants are willing to discount their services so steeply is that it's a great way to introduce themselves to a whole new market.  That's one of the main benefits to folks like us, too; it can introduce us to places we've never been to, and may never have heard of.  And of course, there are some great deals.

Without Groupon, we would probably never have found McKeown's, at the corner of Holladay and Broadway.  The restaurant is a little off the beaten track (several blocks from the Turnaround, a well-known Seaside landmark), but I think it may become our go-to restaurant when we're on the northern Oregon coast.  It's a lovely place, bright and cheerful, with a number of large plants lending to the congenial atmosphere.  The waitress was accommodating and friendly.  There were some very interesting choices on the menu, including Kobe Beef Chopped Steak with Mushroom Merlot Sauce and an Irish Cottage Pie.  The Kobe Beef item tempted us (and with the mushroom sauce, qualified McKeown's for inclusion in this section, rather than the "unmushroom" one), but we had other ideas.

A new restaurant discovery, thanks to Groupon.

Annette's Westgate - Salem, OR

There's really so much to love about Salem.  It's our state capital, of course, and however you may feel about what goes on there, it's interesting for that alone.  But there's more: museums, art galleries, vistas that include the Willamette River, minor league baseball, Silver Falls State Park to the East and Willamette Mission State Park to the North and, of course, shopping.  All in all, it's a charming city of about 154,000 citizens that's easily accessible from our home in Port Orford (and most every place else in western Oregon), and we often seem to find ourselves gravitating to it for a weekend getaway as we did earlier this month.

Annette's Westgate restaurant was an Internet find.  After viewing the menu and spotting razor clams (one of Steven's perennial favorites!) featured, we knew we had to head for the historic Kingwood Building where Annette's is located and give this place a try. 

The clams were large, tender and flavorful, and so was everything else.  My chicken fried steak (one of their most popular items, according to the waitress) with garlic mashed potatoes filled the very large plate. The salad bar was astonishing, with an abundance of selections including chopped turkey and ham, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, seaweed salad and marinated mushrooms.  I'll bet I haven't seen a salad bar that generous in 30 years.  The dessert case was plump with an assortment of cream pies, cinnamon rolls, cheesecake and other yummy looking selections.  Frankly, I'd like to meet the person who has room for dessert after eating dinner at Annette's! 

A delightful dining spot in Salem. 

Ton Kiang Dim Sum Restaurant - San Francisco, CA

It seems that we've set a tradition of visiting wildlife and family in California in January, and this year was no exception.  We spent a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium participating in the "Feeding Frenzy" optional tour and were mesmerized by the jellies and seahorse exhibits.  Traveling further down the coast, we arrived at the Elephant Seal Viewing Point at Piedras Blancas (just north of San Simeon and Cambria) where vocalizing female elephant seals and their newly born pups populated the beach.  Pismo Beach's Monarch Butterfly Grove was our next stop, and we were enchanted by the thousands of butterflies that clung to the eucalyptus branches in the early morning cool air.  A little south of town we visited the towering, Lawrence of Arabia-like sand dunes before heading back up to San Luis Obispo for a delightful evening with family.  The final stop on our excursion was a drive through the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge, which provides habitat (resting and feeding areas) for more than 40% of the Pacific Flyway's wintering waterfowl, and typically has about a bazillion snow geese.   Not that day, though; it was beautiful and clear, and what geese there were, for the most part, rafted up well out of good camera range.  We'll try again next year. 

It might be a little hard to say what was our favorite wildlife sighting on this week long trip (guests at the aquarium, elephant seals and their pups on the beach, Monarch butterflies clinging to eucalyptus branches, clouds of waterfowl landing in the refuge),  but there's no doubt that the Ton Kiang Dim Sum Restaurant in San Francisco would top the list of newly discovered eateries. 

You're sure to be delighted with Ton Kiang's dim sum. 

Garden View Restaurant, Oregon Garden Resort - Silverton, OR

Think of the perfect mushroom appetizer, and you're probably thinking of the Forest Mushroom Rhapsody proudly served at the Garden View Restaurant at the Oregon Garden Resort.  It's plump with sun-dried tomatoes and seasonings folded into a medley of oyster, shitake and cremini mushrooms and encased in filo dough...truly a remarkable visual and taste treat!

For an entree, I selected the half duck, and it arrived with a delicious and seasonally appropriate cranberry sauce and red potatoes.  Steven's prime rib was a generous portion cooked to perfection and accompanied with red potatoes and very forgetable vegetables.  Dessert?  No way.  After 2 helpings of the delicious crusty rolls, Steven and I found ourselves carrying take-out boxes filled with generous portions of our entrees back to our room to be savored at a later time.

Silverton's freezing fog couldn't stop this fungal fruiting in the Oregon Garden. 

Bistro Maison - McMinnville, OR

My most vivid memory of the lovely Bistro Maison is that they taught me something about mushrooms that directly contradicted a strong and long-held opinion.  More about that in a moment.

Bistro Maison is a cozy, warm and friendly French restaurant in the city of McMinnville, in the middle of one of Oregon's best wine-producing areas and an easy drive from Portland and Salem.  It's not pretentious, as French restaurants can often be.  And we found it almost by accident.  It was early in December, 2010, and we'd initially gone to another restaurant nearby, but had been put off by a wait, a diffident greeting at the door, and high prices on a chalk board menu (they had no printed ones) that we found uninspiring.   No, we won't identify the place; we only publish favorable reviews, because restaurants can and do go through rough patches, and possibly that was the case here.  But on this night, we decided to go elsewhere.

So a few minutes later, we were standing outside Bistro Maison, reading the display menu.  And a passerby stopped and asked, "Are you going to eat there?"  We said we hadn't decided yet.  "You should," he replied.  "You won't be disappointed!"  An unsolicited recommendation is almost always a good portent.  "OK," we shrugged, and in we went. 

 

Bistro Maison was the venue
for a lovely French meal during the holidays. 

La Rambla - McMinnville, OR

Located just 35 miles southwest of Portland, the city of McMinnville has a lot going for it.  There's the Evergreen Aviation Museum, with the "Spruce Goose," another 200 or so aircraft and exhibits, IMAX theatre, and, of course, the newly opened Evergreen Wings & Waves Waterpark.  There's also Linfield College with its 1,700 person student body pursuing a liberal arts curriculum in the private facility which was chartered in 1858.  And then, there's the fact that McMinnville is located in the heart of Oegon's wine country, which is blessed with a long, moderate growing season that produces exceptional wine grapes.

We weren't in McMinnville to sample any of these assets.  We were there to sample the cuisine, and our first stop was the lovely and unique restaurant and bar, La Rambla, with its northwest-inspired cuisine from Spain.  Located in the historic Schilling Building, LaRambla has as an impressive  interior:  a beautiful wood entrance, dark mahogany, a copper-topped bar, original artwork, and a multitude of gorgeous, hand-blown light fixtures.

The hand-blown light fixtures are stunning. 

Anna's By The Sea (revisited)

A play performance in nearby Gold Beach gave us an excuse to re-visit Anna's, an old favorite we hadn't been to for quite a while.  As before, we were glad we went, and scolded ourselves for taking so long.

The brief menu - which varies with the night and owner "Cookie's" mood - featured "Quack - Single Lobe Duck Breast, oven seared to medium rare, served with Potato Puffs and Slathered with Chanterelles."  I read no further, having made my decision.  I didn't regret it.  The duck was done to perfection, moist and juicy, and the chanterelles were just right.  A nice Pinot Noir was the perfect accompaniment. 

  

Baked Alaska

Perched on an Astoria pier looking out at the mighty Columbia River near its entrance to the blue (or, more often, gray) Pacific is a unique restaurant, Baked Alaska.  The view is lovely, and so is the food.  An innovative menu with imaginative pairings will make your choice a complicated and agonizing one.

There always has to be a noteworthy mushroom dish to be included here, and this one was a beaut: "Crab and Mushroom Sambuca Carbonara," described as "Crimini and oyster mushrooms sauteed with sweet onions, bacon, garlic, parsley and crab meat, in a light Sambuca reduction sauce over fresh fettuccini."  Our mouths began to water as we read it.

What a spectacular setting.

Cafe Zenon

A quick mid-may trip to Eugene, Oregon (home of the University of Oregon Ducks!) gave us the opportunity to try a restaurant that had been recommended by a friend:   Cafe Zenon.  We're glad we did.

The downtown street corner location offers dining outside in good weather, not the case when we were there, unfortunately.  The menu was innovative, with lots of interesting edibles to entice us.  We opted for a pair of appetizers to start with.  One was Samosas, which were described as "East Indian fried pastries stuffed with curried potatoes, zucchini, peas, shallots and yogurt, served with cilantro chutney."  These were interesting, and we liked the chutney, but we had enjoyed some very authentic Samosas before that contained lamb, and found them a lot more to our liking than the vegetarian version served here.

The Cafe also has streetside dining.